Understanding God helps alleviate suffering

Polly Castor

Published 10:04 pm, Friday, January 25, 2013

A long time ago, before I knew anything about Christian Science, I had such a bad case of the flu that my temperature was higher than the thermometer could show. People were understandably very concerned.

I was in the dorm in college and had a few friends come by to pray for me. Two of them were Christian Scientists whose prayers were more than earnest petitions for my recovery.

To my surprise, I had a miraculous, sudden, and complete healing. Let me tell you that got my attention!

I had been an atheist up until this point, having never encountered an idea of God that resonated with me. But these Christian Scientists talked about God as Love -- that literally love itself is God.

I believed in love, and wanted it just as much as the next person, but I had never considered that as my God before. This radical change of view is what resulted in my healing.

As Christian Scientists, we spend our energy growing in our understanding of God, mostly because that is the most important and everlasting relationship we'll ever have, but also because prayers based on that understanding have powerful results in helping to alleviate humanity's suffering. In the experience related above, my dorm friends' prayer of understanding was fully and promptly answered.

Since my miraculous healing, I have rejoiced in getting to know God. I have learned through the Bible and Christian Science to understand God as Life itself, Truth itself, Mind itself, Soul, Spirit, and Principle itself. I have always believed in these things, even when I identified myself as an atheist. All these synonyms of God are particularly helpful in understanding God and what God does.

In Christian Science, for example, God as Truth clarifies and reveals reality, gives us a strong foundation, and corrects any kind of error. God as Life itself demonstrates God to be as close as your next breath, as well as more infinite than the boundaries between birth and death. God as Mind is the alert, all-wise, intelligent Creator of the universe, and it often helps to see issues from the perspective of the one omniscient divine Mind, rather than that of opposing human opinions.

Reasoning like this is a powerful aspect of Christian Science prayer. Unlike those who start their prayers with a human problem and then ask God to intercede, Christian Scientists start their prayer with their understanding of God, and reason from that perfect Cause to a perfect effect, which often aligns the human situation as a direct consequence.

Over and over again, I have seen how God as Love dispels the fear that induces fever. I have become aware that a God that is omnipotent Love never would prescribe illness, nor ordain germs and contagion with an ability to afflict. Through this reasoning, I have proved God to be powerful both in protecting one from ever getting sick, as well as effective as an alterative in whatever way is needed.

Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, wrote in her bestselling book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "The transmission of disease ... would be impossible if this great fact of being were learned, -- namely that nothing inharmonious can enter being, for Life is God."

She also states, "Beloved Christian Scientists, keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease and death cannot enter them. It is plain that nothing can be added to a mind already full. There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness. Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited."

I do not think "flu season" is natural, to be expected, or to be endured. Instead, I believe it is to be redeemed and eliminated because it is not in keeping with divine Love. Health, joy, vibrancy, and bliss, these are our birthright.